Monday, February 25, 2013

Believe And Behave

And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)

   "Believe and Behave" is the central theme of the book of Romans. Paul contends that what we believe has everything to do with how we behave. If our belief is wrong, our behavior will be wrong. And if our behavior is wrong, our belief cannot be right. Our behavior says more about our beliefs than does our verbal testimony or writtencreed.
   We often tend to emphasize either belief or behavior to the exclusion of the other,  which makes for a partial and imbalanced christianity. Paul, a man of balanced faith, assigns equal importance to each.  The first eleven chapters of Romans deal with belief and the last five with behavior.
   In the winter of A.D. 57-58, Paul was in Corinth at the end of his third missionary journey. He was soon returning to Jerusalem with and offering for the poor. A woman named Phoebe, who lived in a suburb of Corinth, was soon to sail to Rome. Paul saw an opportunity to send this letter to the church of Rome with her.
   Because there was no postal service in the Roman Empire except for government business, personal letters had to be carried by friends. Paul was not sure he would get away from Jerusalem alive. Desiring to to leave a written explanation of the gospel of salvation in the hands of the christians in Rome, he wrote this letter, which Phoebe delivered safely to the church.
   Realizing that this may be his only communication with the church so strategically located in the capital of the world, he stressed what he must have felt to be the two cardinal truths of the christian faith--the belief that results in salvation and the behavior that results from salvation.

   1. The Belief That Results in Salvation. ( Rom. 1:16)

    After a few brief words of introduction, Paul proclaims, " For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..." (Romans 1:16). What kind of belief enables us to receive salvation?
   A. Belief in the unlimited power of salvation.  Paul says that he is proud of the gospel of salvation. He considers himself privileged to preach it. What a strange statement considering all that had recently happened to him! At Phillipi he had been jailed, at Thessalonica he had been expelled, at  Berea he had been smuggled out, and at Athens he had been scorned.
   The gospel Paul preached in Corinth was considered "foolishness" by the Greeks and a "stumbling block" by the Jews. In spite of the opposition, Paul says the gospel "is the power of God unto salvation!" The unlimited power of the gospel made Paul victorious over every obstacle in his path
   Whe Pual speaks of "the power of God unto salvation," he speaks from personal experience. At first he hated the christian faith; his heart was calloused against the call of God. He even planned a journey to Damascus to arrest and persecute those who were followers of Christ.
    If ever a man were unbending in his conviction, Paul was that man. Nothing could change him--until he encountered the person of Jesus Christ. It was then that he discovered the unlimited power of God that can change any person, anywhere, in any condition! The belief that besults in salvation is a belief in the unlimited power of salvation.
   B. Belief in the unrestricted availablity of salvation. Paul proclaims that this salvation is available to all who believe. Why does Paul say, "To the Jew first"? Because they were in the immediate proximity and had the best religious background for accepting the gospel. Then he says, "And also to the Greek." The gospel reached Greeks as well as Jews.
   The Greeks were the intellectuals of the first century and were often cynical. Stoicism and Epicureanism were four hundred years old, and ineach the evcitement had almost gone out of the movements and decay had set in. Greek-Roman religion in the first century was confused and caotic, with so many gods and deitied that cities even maintained "catch-all" shrines to provide emanations that might be overlooked.
   What caused Greeks to become christians? The answer is revealed in the opening of Pauls address on Mars hill: " The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands" ( Acts 17:24). In place of the randomness that Athens offered, Paul tells of a God who can speak for Himself and who is not contained in human thought. Jesus provides an unrestricted, universally available salvation.
   In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul says that salvation is available without restriction because of several factors.
   1. The "need" requires it. " For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Since all have sinned, salvation is available to all. It is available without restriction because paople have sinned without exception.
   2. The "grace" that provides it. " For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life though Jesus Christ our Lord" (6:23). Salvation is available without restriction not because of human goodness but because of God's grace. If salvation were available on the basis of our goodness, it could not be availabe without restriction.
   3. The "price" that purchased it. "But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (5:8).  How could God "prove His love toward us" through the death of Christ? Because " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself" (2Cor. 5:19). Christ died for us, He deid on our behalf--voluntarily. "I lay down my life... no man takes it from me" (John 10:17-18).
   A little boy made a toy boat, but soon he lost it in the street gutter in front of his home. It was swept down the street sewer. Later he saw it in the window of a pawn shop. He saved his pennies and paid one dollar for the boat. As he left the shop he said, " little boat, you're mine twice-- I made you and I purchased you."
    We are God's twice. He made us and He ourchased us.
   4. The "love' that ensures it. Robert Bruce, a disciple of John Knox, deid on July 27, 1631. That morning he had come to breakfast and his younger daughter sat by his side.

    As he mused in silence, suddenly he cried: " Hold, daughter, hold; my Master calleth me." He asked that the Bible should be brought, but his sight failed him and he could not read. "Cast me up the eighth of Romans,"   cried he, and he repeated much of the latter portion of this scripture till he came to the last two verses: "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." "Set my finger on these words," said the blind dying man; "God be with you my children. I breakfasted with you, and I shall sup with my Lord Jesus this night. I die believing in these words" (marcus loane, the hope of glory [ waco:word, 1969], 160).

    For belief to be valid, it must accompany the right behavior.

   2. The behavior that results from salvation (Rom. 12:1-2; 13:1-5; 14:21; 15:1-3)
   Belief results in salvation- behavior results from salvation. In other words, belief saves us and behavior proves that we are saved. Paul points out that our belief in the gospel will affect three areas of our behavior.
   A. Our conduct ( Rom. 12:1-2). " I beseech you therefore...." Whenever we see the word "therefore" in scripture we need to find out what it's there for. It always looks back on what has been said. Paul is saying, "In the light of the belief that results in salvation, I now set forth the behavior that results from salvation." You have believed, therefore you should behave!" He did not say "I command you!" He says, "I beseech you." After all, he is writing to those who have already believed in Christ and thus should of their own volition behave as believers.
   There may be things we cannot do and much we cannot give, but by the grace of God we can behave!
    1. Our conduct should be voluntary--"present your bodies" (v1)
    2. Our conduct should refuse to be molded by others. "Be not conformed..."(v2). christians don't take the color of their social enviroment. Like their Savior, christians are distinctively different from those around them!
    3. Our conduct should come from within. "But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..."(v2). Until we have genuine belief that results in salvation, we lack the power to behave. But when Christ comes into our lives, we become new cretures. Christ becomes the center of our lives.

    B. Our citizenship (Rom. 13:1-5).  Our citizenship--the way we relate to people in elected positions of authority--may be the greatest testemony we have. In God's economy there is no place for the destuctive spirit of rebellion and anarchy.
  
   C. Our concern. (Rom. 14:21; 15:1-3).  In chapter 14 Paul says that salvation enables christians to place the concerns of others above their own self-ish interests. When we reach this level of behavior, the criteria is no longer merely "is it right or wrong?" but rather "will it cause my brother to stumble?"
   If our belief in Christ is genuine, we will behave as Christ would. We won't be out to please ourselves, to prove out point, or to insist on our own way. Rather our lives will be characterized by the christian love of which Paul speaks in 1Corinthians 13: " Love is patient, love is kind.... It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs" (vv 4-5)
    Believe and behave! Thats the message of the book of Romans. "Believe and behave--not Believe or behave. When we grab both of these truths so that they are both translated into our everyday lives, then Paul's letter to the church in Rome has accomplished its purpose both in the church of times past and in our time.

No comments:

Post a Comment